Monday, May 31, 2010

Our house didn’t have a dishwasher when we moved in. For almost 7 months, I’d stand in front of the sink at least once a day, donning my sassy red polka dotted rubber gloves and scrubbing the heck out of our dishes.

Sometimes I wonder how my grandparents survived their entire lives washing everything by hand. The sheer time commitment is more than I can handle. Perhaps a dishwasher falls in the category of you don’t miss what you never had? Except, I’ve had one and knew exactly what I was missing.

Enter Mr. Bosch.

Our dishwasher was installed a couple of days ago and last night it was full and ready for its first cycle. Fiance cautioned me several times to read the directions first (and after what I’ve done to the laundry machine, who could blame him), so I carefully went through all 3 elementary-level steps.

Win! The dishes came out perfectly clean!

For those of you who may not have a dishwasher, I recommend dish gloves. They do wonders for your hands, especially in the winter. Plus you can wash in really hot water without burning the crap out of your skin.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Fiance was headed to the Kentucky Derby a few weeks ago for a bachelor party. So being a good wife-to-be, I packed him and his friends a few snacks for the road. I made fruit and pecan granola bars from EatingWell.com.

Apparently the bars got rave reviews from the gentlemen partaking in the weekend festivities. Fiance got home on Sunday with an endless list of compliments and asked if I would make them again.

The good wife. That’s me. (In four months.)

Well, this weekend Fiance’s best friend celebrated his 30th birthday – on the Delaware River. They went canoeing until they reached an island where they set up camp for the night. No beds. No bathrooms. Not even a car.

This is the type of thing Fiance loves to do – and usually does with his guy friends. So when I saw that the E-vite was sent to guys AND girls, I got really nervous. Would he expect me to go with him?

Turns out he knows me better than I sometimes give him credit for. He’s well aware that I function best when my nights are spent in the great indoors.

But I couldn’t help feel a little guilty. Perhaps I should have sucked it up and went with. What would you have done?

P.S. I tried that fruit and pecan recipe again. But second time I was overly confident and breezed right through it, forgetting that table spoon of flour at the end. If you were wondering – yes – it is an important ingredient.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Every bride knows they’re a critical part to the wedding planning. But what if you’re indecisive and don’t really care?

I thought I had that figured out – let my bridesmaids pick their own dresses and they’ll indirectly make the color decision for me.

Fooled me. Sister and Cousin selected an absolutely gorgeous, fitted dress with an empire waist and a cap sleeve. And they decided to order it in taupe. Just like that I was back to square one.

Not letting her off the hook that easily, I went out for coffee with Sister (& moh) to discuss wedding colors. We were just sitting down at Starbucks when the Komodo Dragon Blend caught our eye. The packaging incorporated deep shades of purple and red. Definitely wouldn’t have come up with that on my own, but absolutely loved the idea.

If you’re in the same boat – just look around for inspiration. There are examples of excellent color palates – and not so excellent ones – absolutely everywhere.

I got even more excited when I was in New York with two my college friends and saw an orchid with a purple center. Then everything started coming together. The orchids for my bouquet. And variety of dark purple and red flowers for my bridesmaids, which should be pretty dramatic against their taupe dresses.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

I may have mentioned when I started blogging that I was busy working full-time, going to grad school part-time, planning a wedding, fixing up a house, and filling our calendar with endless weekend trips. I was literally drowning in my own life (and loving every second of it). The experiences were great – I just didn’t have time to tell you about them.

While on my blogging hiatus quite a lot has happened. I had a few more laundry fails. First. The set tub. During the “snowpocalypse” in Pittsburgh, Fiance was shoveling snow constantly. So one morning he left his jeans hanging over the edge of the set tub to dry before he’d need them again in a few hours. Let’s just say after Domestically Deficient did a load of laundry they were even more soaked (not to mention full of soap bubbles) than they were post shoveling. Hey – ya win some, ya lose some.

After that, Fiance decided to make the laundry his jurisdiction. A-ok with me! But he was working late one Thursday evening and I desperately needed some clean undies to pack for that weekend’s trip. So I shoved every dirty something I could find in the laundry machine (as you may recall, I don’t believe in sorting). Problem: I left the setting on ‘small load’ when it really should have been set to ‘this load is wayyy too big for an industrial machine.’ I’m still not quite clear on exactly what happened, but somehow I shorted a circuit and broke the darn machine. Fail. Again….

I also screwed up a meal or two, and at one point let the house get dirtier than I care to admit. But I had a few wins as well.

I pulled off my first successful dinner party around Christmas time. Granted, I was entertaining my brother-in-law-to-be and his sweet girlfriend, so it’s not like it was a tough crowd to please.

I also had my future in-laws over for dinner. Aside from dinner being ready over an hour later than expected, it was a pretty great night. Again, not a tough audience to please.

And just this morning I had my parents over for breakfast. I made broccoli quiche, breakfast potatoes with green onions and asparagus and added some fresh melon and coffee to complete the meal. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.